1/6/26
I was just watching a political commentator on YouTube, who was warning about the proliferation of deep-fake videos, including of his own podcast. He says that many of them start out appearing to be fan-based, but that once they build trust, they may start mixing in opposite ideology. I have wondered, myself, whether some people use deep fakes of themselves to distance themselves from their own commentary, for safety's sake. In any case, if this fellow's interpretation is correct, then no-one will know what's real anymore. Which is what we all said about deep-fake video, but it's happening much faster than was predicted.

This goes to training in discernment. The more a person, or a society, is immersed in lies, the more he, or it, is forced to learn discernment. Discernment is not intelligence. Academia, for example, is woefully lacking in discernment. Discernment is intelligence guided by intuition. My Guru, Meher Baba, said that the next great leap for mankind is from intelligence to intuition. Deep fake video is the latest proving ground, part of the birth pains of the great change.

I have unwittingly been trained in discernment by over 50 years of discipleship to Meher Baba, and by a deep study of his teachings (as well as teachings of other spiritual masters of high attainment, like Sri Ramakrishna). I brought it into my research on Mathew Franklin Whittier and his wife, Abby Poyen Whittier back in 2009, when I began identifying their anonymous published works. It was at that time I began to realize that several of the iconic literary figures of the 19th century, whom Academia has lauded and analyzed exhaustively, were fakes. In other words, this phenomena of deep fake videos is not new. Only the technology is new. The phemonenon of "deep fakes" is not.

In the course of identifying Mathew and Abby's own works, I discovered that Charles Dickens was a deep fake. So were Margaret Fuller, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Edgar Allan Poe, and Albert Pike. Several of these I deem to have been full-blown sociopathic personalities (Dickens, Poe and Pike); the others, Fuller and Browning, were neurotic. You will note that Fuller and Browning suffered from mysterious, debilitating physical illnesses. I also found--though I don't go into it much in my public writing--that in a particular sense, Mathew's own brother, John Greenleaf Whittier, was a deep fake of the neurotic type, who also suffered from mysterious, debilitating headaches. He was real, as a poet of tremendous native talent; but he was no authentic religious prophet or saint, and I suspect he was using the abolitionist movement for personal gain. Basically--as one biographer noted concerning his ability to portray colors, despite being colorblind--he could write convincingly about anything at all, like a musician for hire.

These are not ad hominem attacks. These are my results, from 16 years of intensive, rigorous research, in which I tested my own theories and was prepared to honestly admit I was wrong at every turn. And I did admit that I was wrong at several points in my research journey. I've blogged about it, and I was transparent about these mistakes in my books. But this blog is "here today and gone tomorrow," my entries from months and years past being visited only by "bots." And aside from one mysterious sale the other day, I haven't sold copies of my e-books for years.

Speaking of sales, it looks like sales of my new book, "The Sacred Carol," have topped out at eleven. Years ago, I had a sales representative working for me on spec, for my documentary, "In Another Life: Reincarnation in America." He finally concluded that kids who make a horror movie over the weekend, sell more copies of their video than I was selling. Today, people on the "Authors Helping Authors" Facebook page, who are self-publishing, sadly report having sold only 112 copies, or something like that. I'm selling a tenth of their pitiful total.

And I have logically proved, from blatant evidence uncovered in Charles Dickens' own manuscript of "A Christmas Carol," that he couldn't possibly have been the original author. And, this is after a robust attempt to promote it (i.e., given my budget).

As the woman who funded me concluded, about her own museum exhibit on the subject of death and dying some years ago, "They don't know, and they don't want to know."

But with deep fake video coming, all I can say is, whatever the topic, you'd better want to know, if you don't want to be led around by the nose like cattle.

Sincerely,

Stephen Sakellarios, M.S.